President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) visit to Guatemala and two other Central American countries this week will not be affected by allegations implicating Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom in the murder of a prominent lawyer, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Ministry Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) was responding to media reports that quoted veteran diplomats as accusing the ministry of failing to take recent developments into account when planning the president’s visit to Guatemala.
Chen said the schedule for the visit to Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador had been finalized after careful assessments made between the ministry and the nation’s embassies in those countries and that the ministry would not change the schedule.
The spokesman declined to comment on Colom’s alleged involvement in the murder of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, saying only that the case was being dealt with by Guatemalan authorities.
Ma, accompanied by his wife and entourage, will spend two nights in Belize and Guatemala each before proceeding to El Salvador to attend the inauguration of president-elect Mauricio Funes.
Ma will transit through the US on his way to and from Central America.
Colom has been hit by allegations that he ordered and then covered up the murder of Rosenberg, aged 47.
In a video he made before his death, Rosenberg starts a 20-minute message with the statement: “If you are watching this message it is because I have been murdered by Alvaro Colom.”
Rosenberg, a Harvard-educated lawyer and outspoken critic of the Colom administration, was shot in Guatemala City on May 10.
In the video, which was posted on YouTube after his murder, Rosenberg discusses his investigation into the murder of his client, Khalil Musa, and Musa’s daughter Marjorie. Rosenberg believed that Colom’s government was responsible for their deaths.
Rosenberg said Musa was about to blow the whistle on a money-laundering scheme involving Colom, his wife and his secretary.
Since the video surfaced on May 12, Guatemala has been rocked by protests calling for Colom’s resignation.
Colom has categorically denied Rosenberg’s accusations and called on the Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, a UN-backed investigative body, to probe the allegations. He has also reportedly asked the FBI to investigate the case.
Asked for comment, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), a member of the Foreign and National Defense Committee, yesterday supported the president’s decision to proceed with the trip to Guatemala.
Ma’s plan should not be affected by the allegations against Colom because the investigation is ongoing, Lin said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
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